


So Strange

by ashleeforreal



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, my shining star made me want to post it so, thanks star youre the real mvp, this is really floofley and its been sitting in my wips for like a year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 01:59:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11681643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleeforreal/pseuds/ashleeforreal
Summary: Akaashi’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink, and he looked towards the treeline in the distance, where the sun was finally sinking. He couldn’t imagine someone using your faults against you as a good thing, but he tried to picture it for Hinata’s sake. “What do you mean?”“I mean I’d be fine with that person taking advantage of my vulnerabilities. But maybe it’s just that: I’d be okay with that person manipulating my flaws, but I trust that they won’t.” Hinata replied sagely. Akaashi gulped back the lump in his throat and inclined his face to Shouyou’s.“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” he commented, lips twitching down. It was probably caused by the little ache in his spinal chord. Maybe from disappointment, maybe from being in this slouch for so long.





	So Strange

**Author's Note:**

> god bless star my babby for accidentally ranting about my fics in front of me what a doll what a babe  
> this has been finished for a really long time but for some reason i never posted it??? and i happened to find it and some friends read it and here we are  
> enjoy your summer heat akahina comment and kudos if you feel it bc it gives me life and i am your local validation starved author
> 
> inspired by this song (x)

“It must be so strange, to marry someone,” Hinata said. He was looking up at the sky, sitting back on his hands under a tree. He was in his usual form that always drew people’s attention: bruised knees, arms and face covered in freckles, and a curve to his lips that could draw in light and create a universe orbiting around his teeth. He looked amazing, with a thin layer of dirt over his ankles from walking a back trail and the wind ruffling the curls escaping his low ponytail. He’d grown it out a bit since his first year, long enough that an inch or two of orange tangles hung below the elastic holding the hair against the base of his neck.

 

“What makes you say that?” Akaashi asked, fingers smoothing over the grass beside his leg. He liked the sensation of it moving against his palm, sifting between his digits and brushing his knuckles. The sun was beating down, shedding no mercy on the people trying to enjoy a day in the park even as it tried to sink below the treeline. It seemed too hot to Keiji.

 

Hinata put both hands behind his neck and laced the fingers together, laying down next to Akaashi and gazing at the leaves fluttering in the branches above them. His eyes held a glimmer of mirth as he tilted just slightly to grin at the setter, a smile that warned Akaashi that whatever was about to leave his mouth was meant only for his ears.

 

That’s what drew Akaashi to him in the first place - how in a room full of people, Shouyou could just look at you in a certain way, say something in a certain voice, and it seemed like it was meant only for you. It was like Shouyou was full of all these amazing secrets about the universe and life itself that he only wanted to share with a few people. In the year since Akaashi had met him, Shouyou had honed this charm of his and geared it specifically towards Keiji’s attention. It was a wonder to people who saw them interact, and even to the Akaashi himself. He was usually able to know of his surroundings, keep an eye on everything around him, but as soon as Hinata called out in  _ that _ tone of voice, Keiji’s focus shattered, and the pieces were gathered up and sucked in by that secret galaxy between Shouyou’s lips.

 

“Well, when you love someone, don’t you develop some sort of soft spot for them?” Hinata asked rhetorically, eyelashes drooping so that he was half-lidded in thought. “You become weaker to them than anyone else, right?”

 

Akaashi nodded, green irises flicking over Hinata’s face and arms. An elbow jutted out to almost touch his knee, and he was tempted to lean his leg out just the slightest bit more to knock them together. He held back on account of it seeming immature for a third year to be falling to tactics like knocking joints together on purpose as an excuse to get closer to another person. “Right.”

 

Hinata hummed for a second, gaze focused solely on Akaashi for a moment, before he wiggled closer and knocked his elbow into the setter’s thigh. Akaashi released a puff of air. Hinata gave a contented sigh as he rested his arm against Akaashi’s leg.

 

“The person you’re in love with, they’d be your biggest weakness,” Hinata implored, “the only person who has that much influence over you, and you decide to tie them to yourself for eternity. Isn’t that weird?”

 

Akaashi turned his head, looking anywhere but Shouyou’s face. It suddenly felt much hotter outside than before. “Yes, I suppose it is weird.”

 

Shouyou took a deep breath and flipped some hair off of his forehead as he moved his stare back to the leaves overhead. It was silent between them, only the sound of  a basketball thwacking against the court a hundred feet behind them and the buzz of insects filling the air. 

 

“Say, Akaashi-san,” Shouyou inquired, “what do you think makes you so weak to them?” His brown eyes turned back to his friend, focusing on the little hitch of Akaashi’s breath and the way Akaashi’s fingers came away from the grass and began twisting together.

 

It wasn’t unusual for them to meet up and sit together like this. Sometimes it was at the park, other times they would just stay at each other’s houses. Those practices in the third gym at training camp had led to many late night conversations, and eventually sparked an unlikely friendship. They’d never particularly done what normal friends did, it was always strange when they were together. It was going over just to listen to a new album Shouyou had bought for an obscure band Keiji had never heard of, or Hinata coming all the way to Tokyo just to give him a picture Natsu had drawn for him. It always ended in them staying the night, because of the distance between them and the pull to be near the other boy that Akaashi couldn’t tell was reciprocated or not.

 

A bug buzzed too close to Akaashi’s ear, and he instinctively reached up to swat it away half heartedly in the afternoon heat. He still didn’t have a good answer to the question even as he opened his mouth to deliver it.

 

“I suppose it would be a combination of things. They could also have a weakness for you, and neither of you would exploit it. Perhaps they think the influence the other person holds over them isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe they think being together will help them be a better person,” Akaashi tried.

 

“I guess,” Hinata acknowledged, sitting up and scooting so that they were shoulder-to-shoulder, “but I was thinking more along the lines that it doesn’t seem like it would be so bad if the other person did exploit their weaknesses.”

 

Akaashi’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink, and he looked towards the treeline in the distance, where the sun was finally sinking. He couldn’t imagine someone using your faults against you as a good thing, but he tried to picture it for Hinata’s sake. “What do you mean?”

 

“I mean I’d be fine with that person taking advantage of my vulnerabilities. But maybe it’s just that: I’d be okay with that person manipulating my flaws, but I trust that they won’t.” Hinata replied sagely. Akaashi gulped back the lump in his throat and inclined his face to Shouyou’s.

 

“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” he commented, lips twitching down. It was probably caused by the little ache in his spinal chord. Maybe from disappointment, maybe from being in this slouch for so long.

 

Hinata’s lips quirked into a cheeky smile, the freckles across his nose blurring together as his nose scrunched in amusement. Akaashi didn’t see what was so funny. One of the last sunrays beamed through to land below Shouyou’s right eye, creating shadows in the crow’s feet around it. “Akaashi-san, I’ve got more experience than you could ever guess.”

 

Akaashi felt the curiosity swirling at the forefront of his mind while Hinata stood up. Before getting up to join him, Keiji decided to be straightforward. Shouyou probably wouldn’t take it the wrong way.

 

“Hinata-kun, have you been in love many times, or just one person for a long time?” Akaashi questioned, tone curious even to his own ears.  Hinata reached down and grabbed both of Akaashi’s hands to pull him up off the ground. Akaashi had grown used to Hinata’s casual skinship gradually, and now he didn’t flinch as much as he did at first. In light of recent realizations, however, Akaashi’s hands shook slightly when he curled his fingers around Hinata’s to give him leverage.

 

“Ah, well, I’ve been in love with the same person for a little under a year. I don’t think he’s noticed yet, though, and I’m just waiting for him to catch up. The good news is, I had a talk with him recently that made me think he might already be ahead of me.” Shouyou’s tone was soft, as was the sight of the smirk he held as he refused to drop Akaashi’s hands even after he was fully standing. Akaashi felt the air whoosh out of his lungs when he looked down at the middle blocker, and a fond smile threaten to break across his usually stoic expression.

 

Hinata’s voice took on a playful inflection as he dropped Akaashi’s fingers. “It wouldn’t be a surprise, though. He’s almost always a step ahead of me.”

 

They began walking back towards Hinata’s house, where his mother waited with a homecooked meal and a freshly aired futon for them. Akaashi went there so often he considered it a second home for himself, and the Hinata family always welcomed him so warmly. He sometimes found himself anticipating his next visit to escape the bustle of Tokyo, even if it was only for a weekend. It distracted him in class and practice, the thought of laying back and talking about nothing and everything with Shouyou, Natsu drawing him pictures that occasionally held likeness to the subject matter.

 

A rare chuckle slipped from Akaashi’s lips, a full grin curving across his cheeks and giving Shouyou a view of his entire top row of teeth. Akaashi hardly ever laughed like this.

 

“What’s so funny?” Hinata asked, a reflection of Keiji’s elated smile crossing his own features. Akaashi stopped and turned to Shouyou, who paused in front of him and waited patiently while Akaashi contemplated his answer. After a moment of silence, Hinata added, “You know, I think you’re the only person who can get me to be this patient.”

 

Akaashi felt the heat rise to his cheek, but it didn’t deter his happiness as he lifted a hand to curve around the back of Hinata’s neck, fingers fluttering over the wild mess held in by such a flimsy elastic. He kind of wanted to take it off and watch the curls spring up to lick at the edges of Shouyou’s dimples, frame the face of someone who could hurt him and be endlessly forgiven. 

 

They stood under a streetlight that had just barely began to flicker on in the dusk, the fence to someone’s backyard right beside the sidewalk. Ivy leaves crawled up the edge of it, and peeking over the fence, one could see the flower bed someone had tended to right behind the house. There was a garden snake slithering through it, and it barely caused a disturbance in the leaves as it slid past. Akaashi might have noticed any or all of these things, if Hinata wasn’t opening up a universe between his teeth again, lips parting on his enchanted expression and letting out a shuddering breath that echoed his expectations.

 

Hinata’s hand rose to brush over Akaashi’s, moving past it to remove the restrictive band himself.

 

The strands fell over Keiji’s fingers, and he pushed the tips forwards into the roots, leaning Shouyou’s forehead to meet his where he was already bowed. Hinata had been plenty patient enough. Akaashi couldn’t help but think the crickets chirping almost resembled the tinkling of bells, if you closed your eyes and focused.

 

(But how could he focus, Shouyou was right there, with  _ that _ smile-)

 

“What an amazing weakness,” Keiji sighed.


End file.
